What do puppies have to do with differentiation? Everything!

I’ve been doing a little consumer research and I found that the biggest benefit that most of my clients get from me is my focus on creating opportunities to differentiate themselves from their competition.

So when I came across this article this morning about dog food, personalization, and magic moments, that caught my attention because I’ve yet to hear a dog food talk about magic moments even though the accepted wisdom of marketing is that the dog food and its marketing isn’t as much for the benefit of the dog as it is for the benefit of the dog’s family.

The key line is that people go crazy thinking that there is someone that cares about “their” dog.

Not just any dog, but “their” dog.

This brings me back to differentiation because when we are working to serve our clients, we need them to understand that we are worried about “their” problems and “their” opportunities.

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend that has a friend that just started a sales training firm that targets the tech sector on the West Coast.

The challenge this entrepreneur is facing is that his business is built around the idea of relationships, connections, and acting as a Trusted Advisor.

The market hasn’t really put as much emphasis on that as is really needed.

That creates an environment where we see a lot of “me-too” marketing and products.

Because we are often scaling at the cost of differentiation and excellence.

To put it back in the frame of the dog food: too many sales teams in tech aren’t working on “their” problem, just a problem.

To me, differentiation is the difference between solving a problem and solving “their” problem. Just like the dog owners were amazed that someone cared about their dog, you have to care about your customer’s challenges and opportunities.